Subject: IWG Decatur Georgia, Religious support for gay rights
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 22:30:08 -0500 (EST)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 12 congregations and
organizations and 53 clergy from 15 religious traditions. If you are in 
the general Philadelphia area and represent a congregation or religious 
organization or are clergy, let us know if you want to be added - all faiths 
are welcome. We will also be happy to help start similar organizations in 
other areas.

February 14, 1998

The Decatur Daily
Box 2213
Decatur, AL 35609

Dear Editors:

We were pleased to see from L.L. Colquitt's February
11 letter that those who oppose equal rights for
sexual minorities are no longer able to ignore the
diversity of religious opinion on the issue. 
However, Colquitt mischaracterizes religious support
for gay rights as "members of the mainline, liberal
Christian churches who have abandoned God's word in
favor of political correctness."  There are people
from many religious traditions engaged in this
debate, including Catholics, Quakers, Mormons,
Unitarian-Universalists, Pentecostals, Jews,
Baptists, Buddhists and members of the Ethical
Society and Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan
Community Churches, as well as members of the
mainline Protestant denominations to which Colquitt
refers.  

There are also as many reasons for the support of
sexual minorities as there are religions.  Among
Christians the reasons include disagreement over what
the Bible actually says, concentration on the spirit
over the letter of the law, and/or a belief that some
Biblical passages, including "love your neighbor as
yourself," and "whatever you did to the least of
these you did unto me" (among others) take precedence
over those cited by proponents of heterosexual
superiority.   We invite your readers to visit the
Interfaith Working Group web site at
http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg for a more accurate
and extensive view of faith-based support for gay
rights and other social issues.

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

-- 

Interfaith Working Group                Religious organizations, congregations
[email-masked]                      and clergy supporting gay rights,
http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/         reproductive freedom, and the 
215-235-3050                            separation of church and state.